Kindergarten student in Utah beats entire school in spelling bee

SOUTH JORDAN, Utah, June 25 (UPI) -- A 6-year-old kindergarten student who spells at a seventh-grade level was able to win a spelling bee at his elementary school in Utah's Jordan School district.

Kazim Ali was younger than most of his competition at Eastlake Elementary, but that didn't stop him from winning the bee.

School officials don't ever remember a kindergartener making it past the first round, let alone winning the whole thing.

"I've been in education for 22 years," assistant principal Cindy Tingey told KTRK. "They are usually using short valve sounds use words like cop, cat, pig, so they are learning those short valve sounds."

Ali won the bee by spelling the word sapphire. The savvy speller is enjoying the notoriety that winning the bee has brought. "Yea almost the whole school knows me," Ali said. "If you win the spelling bee everybody in the school knows you."

According to Ali, the biggest word he knows is anthropomorphic. He knows about 600 words in all and has already memorized 223 verses of the Koran, KUTV reported.

"It was amazingly cool." Tingey said. "He is not only a great speller but he's just a cute kid."

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